NON-FICTION

Letter from the Editor

by Leon Perniciaro in Issue Nineteen, March 2025

Dear Reader,

I am so very happy to report that our Kickstarter was a success and we are funded through the rest of 2025 to pay pro rates! I am shy by nature, but please take a moment to hear my ragged voice cheering across time and space in celebration that we managed it. And you know what? It wouldn't have been possible without you, so yes, you should absolutely be cheering as well. Let us join in a roaring chorus of hooping and hollering so loud that we shake the rafters of creation. Who knew I could get so excited about fundraising?

But I kid, I kid, what I'm actually excited about is that we can now bring you a heap of fiction and poetry, short fiction reviews and interviews. A whole year's worth, in fact. I did the math and about 93% of our budget this year will go directly to our authors and artists. And the cool thing is that as we publish more, our overhead doesn't increase, so the percentage of money for creators just grows and grows.

We ended up with 124 backers and raised $4697, so give another cheer and buckle up for an exciting year of fiction and poetry, starting with this outstanding issue. Read it and tell everyone that if they haven't subscribed to Haven Spec Magazine for 2025, they are missing out!

Thank you again, dear reader, for all of your support over the last few years. With your help, we will have many more to come.

With a skip in my step and a song in my heart,
Leon

---

Leon Perniciaro, Editor
Haven Spec Magazine

© 2025 Leon Perniciaro

Leon Perniciaro

Leon Perniciaro is the editor of Haven Spec Magazine, an English PhD candidate at the University of Connecticut, and a member of the Game Design and Development faculty at Quinnipiac University. A citizen of the Choctaw-Apache Tribe of Ebarb and a New Orleanian, he now resides in New England, where he's terrified of both the climate crisis and the Great Filter. His academic research centers on the intersections of Indigeneity, race, and the environment, with a dissertation project shaping up around ideas of extraction and the various ways that settler society tries to claim Indigeneity for itself. Follow him on Bluesky @leonp.